Winchelsea Islands View and the Lantzville Foothills

It was a mixed bag of rides today.  I've been looking at a photo on Google Earth that Paul took entitled "Old Logging Terminus" and I've been wanting to get up there and check what looks like an outstanding view of the Winchelsea Islands.  The same array of logging road spurs takes you up to a couple of smaller lakes in the area that I've been curious about, so for part one of today's ride I planned to search out the spurs and take in the lakes and the ocean view.

Part two was intended only to check out the location of the Lantzville foothills gate.  I assumed it would be locked since entrance to this area is always gated from the Doumont entrances.  To my great surprise and even greater pleasure, it was open!  I went through, explored a spur and rode a beautiful trail to the Vipond Road gate.  Details posted below in the photos.

Here's the route:

1.  Entered at Doumont Trail, through the Tank Traps and on past Round Lake.
2.  Turned left and began exploring network of spur roads, (blue shaded oval).
3.  I was disappointed with the lakes... both are strewn with fallen timber and have little access for fishing.  Forgot to snap a picture. :(  They're not stocked with trout of course.  I'm dubbing them "The Crap Lakes."  Fun trails all around... lots of ups and downs.  Tons of logging; over logging really--quite sad.
4.  This is a fantastic location!  The view of the Winchelsea Islands is superb.  Like an idiot, I brought my digital camera, but it had difficulty writing the data to my memory card that was sitting on my computer at home.  Must go back and take more...  I had to settle for Garmin's navigational snaps this time around.  Could be worse; these photo are set at Garmin's highest resolution of 5MP.
5.  Back onto the main logging road, The Sundew Main Connector, and then a sharp right onto the Lantzville Foothills entrance road.
6.  Rode this fun little uphill spur road.
7.  Reached the ominous gate into the foothills.  I took a few minutes to walk around and check for any possible work-arounds:  No chance--they have that area locked down like a full-security prison, but as I said in my opening paragraphs, it was open today!
8.  Took a left at the upcoming Y and proceeded up a really nice trail.  The ground changes to a red clay base out in the foothills direction and the riding surface is either smooth clay or chunks of rock thrown down by the logging road graders.  Very steep here and there...  I turned around on one of the hills and decided to go looking for a route through the foothills towards any available Doumont gate.  Could it be open too?
9.  This was a fantastic older logging road.  Twisty and hilly with a firm base of mainly packed mud/clay with many grassy spots.  The large chunks of rocks are always about on the hills though, thanks to the logging co.          
10.  Arrived at Vipond Rd. gate.  It was locked of course, but easy to get around.

A wee bit of perspective

The fantastic Winchelsea Islands view spot,  (Paul's "Old Logging Terminus.")  The white line on the coast over the water is the town of Sechelt on Vancouver's sunshine coast.   

A panoramic image of the same area

Along one of the spurs out towards "Crap Lake"

More spurs in the same area.  No trees around there.  :(

Open Sesame!  The Lantzville Foothills Gate

 

The red trails of the Lantzville foothills

Red again...  It's like Mars out there.

Exiting at the Vipond Rd. Gate.  I was a little worried that if I wasn't able to get through this one, I would have to retrace my steps and possibly meet a closed gate on the other side where I had entered.  It was close to 6pm and they have a habit of locking things up around 5pm in some areas.  It was a pretty easy work around at this end though.  Gotta love that sign!  :)

Some kind individual must have buggered up their "keep-out" chain with a truck.  Easy as pie.

 40.2 Km...  I was completely knackered with the beautifully hot sun we've had all day!  I need to sort out a summer riding jacket to content with the heat out there.

Great ride.  I want back in there to explore some more trails.

Here are my GPS files:
GPX for Garmin format
KMZ for Google Earth format

"Speed" on left, "Elevation" on right and "Distance" on the horizontal.  "Elevation" line in green and "Speed" line in blue.  I know, I'm slow....  What can I say?

Blackjack Ridge Once Again... With No Snow!

I managed to convince myself that it was only the snow at higher elevations that prevented me from blasting over Blackjack Ridge towards Lucid Lake and Mt. Benson last fall.  I had my memory corrected today while facing the familiar steep and boulder strewn logging road ahead of me.  "I'm not going up THAT!"  I'll leave this one for Paul to sail up.

Here's today's after work ride:

1.  Entered at Doumont Trail
2.  "Intersection A" Left toward Boomerang Lake
3.   Continued straight past Boomerang on familiar "Behind Mt. Benson" road, but turned right shortly afterwards to begin the climb up Blackjack Ridge's upper road.
4.  Made the same stop as last time, turning right onto a short spur road that offers amazing views at 711m.  The Blackjack Ridge road begins a steep climb where this spur begins.  I rode up it for about twenty feet and decided I had better leave this one for another day.  (Maybe when/if I lower my bike????)
5.  Turned right, on the way back, up this fantastic narrow windy trail that leads to the Benson Trail.  Followed the Benson Trail back to Boomerang Lk.  (Had a quick peep to see if Paul was fishing up the lake...  Not).
6.  Lake intersection
7.  Dropped in at Kidney Lake and fished for an hour or so.  Nice trout.

150° Panoramic - Mid way up the trail that heads up Blackjack Ridge.  The trail directly behind my bike winds its way along the ridge and offers amazing views.  I didn't ride it this time, but it's a great addition to the ride if you're looking for photos.  That's Mt. Decosmos in the distance with Mt. Hooker on it's left.  (First lake lies between them).

  

209° Panoramic - This is the end of the road at location #4.  Mt Hooker (left) and Mt Decosmos in the Background.  First Lake is clearly visible in this photo in the foreground of Mt. Hooker.  (If you click on the photo).

In the distance lies Mt. Whymper.  (Looking left of Mt. Hooker).  Crappy name for the biggest mountain out that way! 

First Lake - Mt Hooker (right) - Mt. Whymper (distant left)

The power lines.  Good route to Rhododendron Lake

Tomorrow's lunch from Kidney Lake.  Actually there were two, but the second one is embarrassingly small and received mundo face damage from being very greedy with my hook.

 That's it.  Beautiful sunny ride.

Looking for a Route to Mt. Decosmos from the N.E.

I took off yesterday after work to see if I could find a route to Mt. Decosmos from the north east.  That is, I want to get to the Decosmos mountain trail(s) without using Nanaimo Lakes Road, a main traffic route.

Here's yesterday's route:

1.  West on Doumont Trail
2. At "Intersection D" turned right towards power lines trail(left goes to Blackjack Ridge).
3.  Attempted what appeared to be a clear and easy route into the Decosmos area roads, but this trail terminates abruptly at the North Nanaimo River.  Definitely no way through here.  Might have been a bridge in place at one point. 
4.  Traveled towards Blackjack Ridge on "power lines trail" toward a second trail that appears to be heading in the Decosmos direction.
5.  Superb narrow mud trail.  Very green and very clear.  A few pools to ride through, but nothing too problematic.
6.  Trail stopped at the North Nanaimo River once again.  The river is fast flowing and deep and can't be crossed easily.
6b.  (Forgot to number this on my map)  :)  The small spur NE of 6 leads across a brook towards what appears on my gps maps as a small lake.  Came to a dead end.
7.  Tried two spurs in the hope that they might connect to the Decosmos Trail.  No dice.
8.  Connected with the familiar trail that runs the length of Blackjack ridge.
9.  Went looking for Paul who I figured might be at Kidney Lake.
10.  Back to Doumont.

Detail of location 6 from the image above.  Interesting looking spot.  I wonder if it's worth fishing here?  The river moves rapidly through here, but there are spots where the action slows down and I'm guessing there are fish hanging about.  Could be busy because it's easily accessible from the other side where a major logging road comes up directly from Nanaimo Lakes Road.

The trail entrance leading to location #3 (above).  I thought this was a dead cert.  I should have looked closer on Google Earth because it's pretty clear when you zoom right in that it doesn't go though.

North Nanaimo River looking west

End of the road at location #3

Next attempt at location #4:  A right turn off the power lines trail heading off towards Decosmos.  This trail was fun!

Pool on straight section before location #6.  It's pretty fine sand and silt here.  Gave me no problems coming in, but I sank deep enough to give the engine a good wash on the way back out. 

Old 4x4 wreck at location #6.  Let this be a lesson to all of them!

Location #6 again.  Parked at the North Nanaimo River.  Nice spot.

Small brook (North Nanaimo River tributary) I crossed this to continue towards location #7 (and "6b")

One more small brook.  I stopped here.  This trail appeared to be going nowhere in particular and since I was still looking for a route towards Decosmos, I turned back.  It's the dead end shown on the route above, NE of location #6.  Map shows a small lake and Google Earth shows a nasty looking, boggy excuse for a lake. 

128 degree panoramic of the North Nanaimo River.  (low res. made from GPS photos)

 That's it.  Great 55.5Km ride.  Must go back and try that river for trout.

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Had to throw in my Boomerang Lake trout from the day before.   Yumm!

Riding the West Side of Okay Mountain

Beautiful day today, and since I got out of the dentist at a decent time, I decided to blast up Okay Mountain to check out the trail visible when passing through the valley on the way to Rhododendron Lake.

Here's today's route:

1. begin Doumont Trail  2.straight at Boomerang intersection (int B)  3. sharp right towards Okay Lk.  4. left up Okay Mt.  5. About face at 725m to retrace route, turning left to Branch 142.  6. Back to "int B"  7. left to the tank traps and Doumont Tr. 

Some perspective.

Nerdy 3D view (Needs red/cyan glasses)

Elevation profile (entire ride, Doumont and back)

 
There was nobody out there today during the entire ride.  I loved it!  Silent everywhere.  Okay Mountain's west trail is fantastic.  A little overgrown here and there, but the views of Decosmos and the valley make it really worth picking through the odd fir tree and chunk of broom.

Broom covered trails

Looking NW towards Rhododendron Lake

A nicer grassy section of the trail (Facing NW)

Okay Valley facing almost due south.  Mt. Decosmos far left

Looking down on the valley road to Rhodo Lake

Further along the trail.  A clearer view of Decosmos is emerging.

Zoomed in

Really great ride! 

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June 03/2012 - A couple of added 3D anaglyph pics below. (You'll need red/cyan glasses):

3D Anaglyph Images of Local Trails

I've been playing with Google Earth making 3D images of some of the more mountainous terrain.  The results are quite surprising.  The roads to the west of Fourth Lake look pretty hairy!

You'll need red/cyan glasses to view these.  Red/green will work, but not that well.

The two summits of Mt Decosmos

 

Doumont Trail and the Tank Traps

West from Fourth Lake

South from Fourth Lake to Cowichan Lake

Local Logging Roads

Okay Mt Valley to Rhododendron Lake